


Never Having to Say

by Tiriel



Category: Secret Six
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Guns, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 19:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiriel/pseuds/Tiriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Friendship means never having to say a lot of things.  Post-series, non-new52, so current DCU canon is disregarded.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Having to Say

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beckyh2112](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckyh2112/gifts).



* * *

Lawton was packing up for a job when his cell phone rang. "Yeah?"

"Deadshot?"

"Catman. When'd you get out?"

"Couple weeks ago. Piggybacked on that mobster escape bomb scare thing."

"Oh, right, I heard about that one. Fancy."

"Yeah. So, I was wondering. Got any work?"

"Nothing I can let you in on. The Squad always needs a shooter, but Waller's not too keen on you and the others these days. Waller's never too keen on anybody anyway, but she's absotively posilutely not keen on the Six. She just needs me because nobody else can hit the side of a barn."

"Right."

"Doesn't Scandal have something lined up?"

"She and Knockout got out a while ago, and they're still on the world's longest honeymoon. Bane's occupying Wall Street, and Ragdoll--"

"Don't. Don't even tell me what 'doll is up to. I need my beauty sleep. Jeanette?"

"She left the country for a while. Not sure when she'll be back. And King Shark--"

"That one I heard about."

"Yeah. Discovery Channel Shark Week. Apparently it was a lifelong ambition."

"So, Blake, how'd you get this number, anyway?"

There was a long pause. "From a friend."

"Oh, right, your girlfriend's besties with Oracle."

"She's not my girlfriend." 

Lawton shrugged, even though he knew Blake couldn't see it. "She shot you."

"That definitely doesn't make her my girlfriend."

"Does in my book." Floyd sighed. "Ah, prom night."

"You went to prom?"

"Nope. But she shot me on prom night. And then--"

"You and I have different taste in women."

"That's for sure. Hey, I've got to catch a plane for this thing, so…"

"Right. Later."

* * *

Thomas listened to the phone ring on the other end of the line. He figured it was just about to go to voicemail when Floyd finally picked up. "Yeah."

"It's me."

"Yeah."

Wind whistled down the line, and he heard the sound of metal sliding against metal. "This a bad time?"

"Nope."

"So I was thinking maybe I'd go back to Africa, show some poachers what it's like to be hunted."

"Uh-huh."

"You could come, too, if you can get away from Waller. Shoot some poachers."

"Uh-huh."

"What are you doing?"

"Nothin'."

Thomas heard the crack of a single gunshot echoing off of tall buildings. "You just shot someone, didn't you?"

"Nope."

Thomas reached for the remote control, flipped on the television, and changed to a news channel. A breaking news alert ticker ran across the bottom of the screen. "You did. You just shot the Quraci ambassador."

"Nope. Not me." Floyd's breathing was heavy, and there was the sound of squeaking door hinges and feet on stairs.

"I can call back."

There was the sound of a scuffle, and then a silenced gunshot. "Nope. I'm good now. So, Africa?"

"Maybe. It's just an idea."

"I really did try to get Waller to take you on."

"It's okay. I wouldn't want to work for her anyway."

"I hear that."

"Africa was a bad idea, too. Too much happened there last time."

"Prob'ly." 

"I'll find something."

"You do that." There was the roar of an approaching motorcycle. "Hey, my ride's here, so--"

"Right."

* * *

Blake picked up on the second ring. "Hey, Deadshot."

"Hey, Catman."

"What's up?"

"Not a lot."

Lawton cleared his throat. "So, whoever shot that Quraci ambassador guy got lucky."

"Yeah? How's that?"

"A bunch of Quraci Security Service guys got found all trussed up on the doorstep of the GCPD, with a bag of some pretty major explosives sitting next to them."

"Gotham's a crazy place, Floyd."

"Seems they had some idea in their head that only one guy, two at the most, could've made the shot that killed their man, so they were gonna blow up a building where he might be staying."

"Huh."

"Would have killed a lot of innocent people. I'm sure the guy they were after would have got away clean, of course."

"Of course."

"Kinda weird that they turned up with just enough evidence for the cops to get around that diplomatic b.s., isn't it?"

"Like I said, Gotham's a crazy place." There was a muffled roar in the background.

"Blake, was that a tiger?"

"Of course not. Tigers have a lower pitch than that. I'm kind of in the middle of a thing, though. Catch you later?"

"Sure."

* * *

"So, Catman," Lawton said when Blake picked up the phone, "I saw in the paper where there was this mountain lion that came down out of the hills and started eating housepets on the outskirts of Denver."

"Weird weather this year, that's what predators do when they don't have anything to eat."

"Lots of citizens on the nightly news saying how they'd shoot it themselves if they saw it near Fido or Fluffy, not wait for the feds to help. But then the critter up and disappeared. Nobody knows where it went."

"Uh-huh."

"Same thing happened a couple other places the last month or so. Big cats that were in places they didn't belong just disappearing."

"You have a point here, Floyd?"

"Bunch of exotic pet dealers got their inventory cleaned out in Texas, too. They didn't report that to the authorities, of course, since they're a bit touchy about the endangered animal trade."

"Yep."

"But one of them did have a radio tracker on his most expensive item. Put out a contract, passed along the info."

"I see. Hadn't heard that. Anybody take him up on it?"

"Seems the critter wound up in this big fancy cat sanctuary somebody just set up in South America."

"Probably better off there."

"Yeah. The contract's canceled now, anyway. Guy changed his mind about wanting the kitty-cat back."

"I bet he did."

"Funny thing, though. The guy who set up the sanctuary, he used cash. Quraci currency. A whole lot of it."

"Funny."

"The way I see it, whoever took down those Security Service guys maybe also somehow got his hands on the cash they used to buy that big pile of explosives."

"Could be."

"Y'know, the kind of people who sell that kind of boomage don't take kindly to being stolen from."

"I doubt they're in any shape to worry about it."

"Well, that's good." He paused. "Hey, Blake?"

"Yeah?"

"You remember that bar down the street from that little bodega we used to hit for ice cream?"

"Yeah. I never did understand why that store changed hands so often."

"See you at the bar in an hour? We can drink a beer, start a fight, chit-chat about the work we ain't doing these days."

"See you there."

**Author's Note:**

> My gratitude to A and also to my better half, for brainstorming, reading, editing, and helping decide between assorted punchlines.


End file.
